It was a banner year for Wisconsin tourism as more people vacationed in Wisconsin and spent more money.
In an interview last week during National Travel and Tourism Week, State Tourism Secretary Stephanie Klett says Wisconsin is finding more friends..
"..For the seventh year in a row, our travel expenditures are up. I started in 2011 and tourism in Wisconsin was about a $14.8 billion dollar industry, which is huge. But 2017 numbers are in and we hit $20.6 billion in economic impact up from when we began in 2011...."
Klett says Tourism decided to stop using slogans and simply promote Wisconsin as a fun place to be...
"...and I think our brand of fun, we got away from all those slogans, we said, 'you know, the number one travel motivator is fun', lets all market together that element of fun and it seems to be working..."
Among some other numbers, tourism supported nearly 200,000 jobs last year, up from 172,000 in 2011. Tourism also generated $1.5 billion in state and local tax revenues. Visitor volumes were more than 110 million visits, up 19 percent since 2011. The average overnight traveler spent 144 dollars a day and the day tripper spent about $64 dollars.
